The story of Bram Stoker’s Dracula has been retold time and time again. It has traversed genres, time periods, and occasionally the sea to make a commentary on life, death, and love.
Director Luc Besson, responsible for iconic movies like Leon the Professional and The Fifth Element, is the latest to throw his hat into that ring. The newest trailer for his take on Dracula arrived on Wednesday morning… and honestly, there’s a lot to digest.
In Dracula, when a 15th-century prince (Caleb Landry Jones) witnesses the brutal murder of his wife (Zoë Bleu), he renounces God and damns heaven itself. Cursed with eternal life, he is reborn as Dracula, an immortal warlord who defies fate in a blood-soaked crusade to wrench his lost love back from death, no matter the cost. On the verge of reuniting, Dracula is hunted by a relentless priest (Christoph Waltz), sworn to end his immortal reign.
The cast of Dracula also includes Guillaume de Tonquedec, Matilda de Angelis, Ewens Abid, and Raphael Luce. Besson wrote, directed, and produced the film.
The trailer teases a lot of things that you would expect, to varying degrees, from a Dracula adaptation. Religious imagery, opulent costumes, and a lot of blood and biting. But it is interesting to see what Besson is already prioritizing in the film: the romance at its center. There is something beautifully tragic to the idea of Dracula’s powers keeping him away from his true love… something that previous incarnations of the story have played with by recasting Mina Murray as her modern-day reincarnation.
It seems like we will be getting something similar with Bleu’s character here, and I am curious to see how it unfolds across the centuries of history and into the film’s present day.
Dracula is set to be released exclusively in theaters on February 6, 2026.
(featured image: Vertical)
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